The Redondo Beach City Council has approved preliminary campaign finance reform measures, putting the city in line with surrounding communities after decades without donation limits to political campaigns.
Initiated by District 3 Councilman Christian Horvath, the City Council Tuesday night directed staff to return with an ordinance that limits contributions to City Council candidates at a maximum of $750 per donor, and holds candidate self-loans to a maximum of $15,000.
Mayoral and other city-wide office candidates, including those running for city treasurer, clerk, attorney or school board positions, would be limited to a maximum of $1,500 per donor. Mayoral candidates will be limited to $25,000 in self-loans; however, other city-wide office candidates are exempt from limits.
The discussion began in February, when District 4 Councilman Steve Sammarco directed staff to create an agenda item regarding reform. The item was pushed back twice since then — once, after City Attorney Michael Webb provided a template framework for council discussion; and again, when the unexpected resignation of then-District 1 Councilman Jeff Ginsburg forced a rescheduling.
At Tuesday’s meeting, Webb returned with a draft ordinance based on similar campaign finance legislation from neighboring cities and around the county.
“My attorney friends tell me that if you think you might have a conflict of interest, you probably do,” said resident Eugene Solomon. “Don’t give people the idea that they can make a donation or a gift and they can get something in return.”
Solomon then listed donations made to Horvath and Mayor Steve Aspel by developer Mohamad Pournamdari, who was connected to a series of corruption scandals in Hawthorne. Once Horvath learned of Pournamdari’s history, he immediately returned the donated funds. Pournamdari, at the time, had a pending application for a new hotel at a property he owns in the city; he pulled his plans after his donations and history were revealed.
District 2 councilman Bill Brand said donations such as these — from leaseholders and contractors within the city — are the kind he thought campaign finance reform should target.
“That’s what happens — even if there isn’t an improper influence, then there’s that appearance to the public,” Brand said. A motion made by Brand later in the night included language that would restrict leaseholders such as Pournamdari and contractors, such as Athens Services, from donating or making in-kind contributions to candidates.
His motion also held more stringent limits on donations to prospective officeholders in the city.
“This doesn’t level the playing field; it makes it worse for individuals,” said District 5 Councilwoman Laura Emdee, who explained that it’s more difficult for cities to increase the allowable amount of donations than it is to reduce them. “It’s hard to explain that when Political Action Committees don’t have limitations on their spending.”
Horvath’s motion was substituted in place of Brand’s and accepted by a 3-2 vote, with Brand and Sammarco voting against. However, his initial idea of creating a subcommittee to further hash out reform details was set aside.
“The reform that Councilman Horvath put forward was a good example of doing without doing anything,” Brand said the following day. “The limits that they put in are so high that big money interests are still going to have lopsided influence on who gets elected. I thought it was completely toothless.”
Horvath disagreed.
“If we were going to get into detailed talks about preventing anyone’s First Amendment rights for a campaign, that’s where a subcommittee should have come in,” he said. “Throwing out in the heat of the moment that we were going to disallow donations from specific people didn’t make sense.
“On some level, the vote should have been unanimous,” Horvath said. “Any kind of reform is a win for Redondo.” ER
